For the construction of houses, it is common for walls to be manufactured in site, using materials such as concrete, which is poured into the form or frame or contention structure, which at the same time will rest on an layout or template or foundation template which conforms the base of the construction.
The distribution of the walls to be poured is made through a layout, sketched over the pattern or foundation template, according with the blueprints of the construction.
In order to perform the pouring, it is necessary to erect temporal walls like frames or forms, which shall be perfectly aligned in order to guarantee a constant concrete thickness in the walls to be constructed.
The alignment of this kind of modular forms or frames, which are vertical in most cases, has been an aspect directed from several perspectives. Some of the alternatives of the prior art include the following:
The U.S. Pat. No. 1,699,557 (Yeager, 1929) describes a device for fastening and leveling of wooden floors on concrete bases, such device is fastened in the concrete base by projections imbibed in the concrete before setting so after that, the floor supports can rest directly over the already fixed device. As well, the U.S. Pat. No. 1,816,226 (Krabiel, 1931) illustrates a more simple embodiment of this kind of fastening devices, consisting of a “U” shaped metallic element which base (the lower part of the U) have holes to receive nails or similar means to fasten it on a support such as wood, and where both walls of the U rise perpendicularly and have holes to fasten these walls to a wooden piece which must be fasten. Another device which is similar from the functional point of view but having a different configuration is the one described in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,182,579 (Bolton, et al., 1939).
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,330,971 (Auberger, 1982), in the other hand, describes a device to “maintain the alignment” between a wooden floor plate and a wooden frame over the level of the first, which also works as a support which delimitate the frame. In this case, the device is fastened to the floor and to the wooden frame for support and alignment, using nails or screws which pass through the walls of the device.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,070 (Idland, 1986), describes what is called a support shoe, which is a part to be built in a vertical position in a concrete foundation by a rod to which is attached through the lower area, the support have retainers which allow to form a fork when attaching two elements with “L” shape with holes in which the nails or screws are fixed to the lower part of the vertical plates or other object to be supported (like a post). The fork is adjustable to the width of the object to be supported.
In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,554 (Tyler, 1988) it is described a method and a device to locate and position several anchor bolts in concrete in order to provide a holding device for columns and posts. The device includes two or more anchor bolts which pass through the plate and are welded to a plate.
Another approximation to the alignment problem for walls is provided by the U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,642 (Hoffman et al, 1988) where a molded device has a plurality of projections and holes which open upwards, to form an anchor set for construction elements, for example walls or wall frames.
In some embodiments, downwards projections from the bottom of the device, which can be used for fastening are included.
In general, the solution includes the installation of a chute with a “U” shaped profile, which is fasten to the template or foundation template using nails or screws. As it can be observed, the use of such chute in the base of the wall may cause a series of basic problems between the wall and such template, for example allowing filtrations or cavities; or since we are dealing with ferrous materials, oxidation and pollution can be generated, reducing the resistance and life of the steel reinforcement of the concrete wall or damaging the lower area of the internal faces of the form or mold, most of all when dealing with soft materials such as wood or aluminum, reducing also the life of the form.
An alternative solution is the use of guide devices such as the above mentioned, made from plastic resins which location is restricted to some established points of the lower part of the wall or form, and in such way, the problem to be solved is to fix such devices in such a way that the correct alignment of the forming elements is guaranteed and therefore the alignment of the finished walls. This invention is related to one of these alignment devices.